When my daughter, Quinn, was diagnosed with a couple of allergies it didn’t take us long to determine where she got them. Some people say that sneezes come in threes. Well, for me, sneezes come in thirteens. Allergies have always been a part of my life, and I’ve always told myself the same thing: “What’s the big deal? It’s just a runny nose.” That is, until recently. In the past month I’ve had two incidents that resulted in some of the worst hay fever of my life. Sucking it up is awfully hard when you can’t stop blowing mucus out.
I never thought I needed an allergist. After all, all they would be doing is pointing out the obvious. I already know what I’m allergic to because I know what give me an attack. My life is an allergy test. I can’t cut the lawn without sneezing to death. Every time we go to Carol’s mother’s house I have to spend as much time on the front porch as I do inside with them. So I’m either allergic to my in-laws or cats, and I hardly need an allergist to clarify. It’s the in-laws, of course. But despite making it 3 decades without a professional’s help, I thought last week that it might be time to get some answers about my allergies once and for all.
I was tested for allergies last Wednesday. Turns out I’m allergic to dust, cats, dogs, trees, grass, ragweed, and feathers (no in-laws after all, huh…). But even more informative than the list was the information about allergies the doctor gave me. My allergies were 
triggering reactions and my body was in turn fighting them. What that means is that every morning I woke up in a bed with a down comforter, every afternoon I spent on the golf course, and every visit to a shut-in with a dog, my body was working overtime keeping me functional. The result was the fatigue I’ve come to accept as a part of life. Turns out most people don’t need an hour nap after 8 hours of sleep. I just did because I was wasting so much energy being a tough guy with a runny nose.
As I thought about our bodies and how much energy we can physically waste living in environments that are toxic to us, I couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing was true for our minds and our souls. I wonder if sometimes, like our body weighed down by an allergy, our souls can be weighed down by spiritual burdens. We all carry baggage. We harbor resentment against others. We hold on to anger and disappointment. We let the little lies about our body image and self esteem sit in the places on honor in our mind. Depression, loneliness, self-doubt, and pity attack us like an allergy we can’t avoid.
And too often we are all to content to live like that.
We tell ourselves it’s normal, and it doesn’t bother us.
But the truth is we can’t and aren’t living fully into the promise of life and peace that God longs for us. How can we expect our spirits to experience fullness of joy when half of our spirit is focused on the sin that clings so close? We can’t. We’re so busy fighting our sin like an allergy, we aren’t living fully into God’s life.
But fortunately for us God’s knows we struggle with this, and God plans to do something about it. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” Hebrews 12:1 says, “Lay aside every weight.” God’s plan isn’t a prescription antihistamine to help us fight our burden. God’s plan is:
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For us to let it go.
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For us to stop giving it power.
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For us to stop wasting time being consumed by death.
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And for us to start living into his life.
Jesus came, lived, died, and rose to put to death all the things that separate us from God. Why is it then that we still hold on to the relics of sin and spend so much energy being angry, ashamed, or anxious? God’s inviting us to cast our anxiety on him and lay aside every weight. We wouldn’t continue to sleep with a down comforter once we found out we were allergic to feathers. Then neither should we hang on to sin, when God’s offering so much more.
Now I know I’ll never be able to avoid everything I’m allergic to. And I know we will never be able to fully let go of our sin and doubt and baggage. But I can take steps for my body, and we can take steps with our sin.
So to whom do you need to say sorry?
Where have you needed to grant forgiveness?
Where do you need to turn envy into support or greed into contentment?
Do it today, because, like 1 Peter says, God cares for you.